. >> reporter: just before gordon brown became britain's prime minister, he and his wife discovered their infant son had cystic fibrosis. that private family trauma was suddenly splashed across the front page of the murdoch-owned "sun." brown says it was devastating. >> in tears. your son is now going to be broadcast across the media. sararaand i were incredibly upset about it. >> reporter: and another murdoch paper, "the sunday times," was allegedly using known criminals to hack into brown's tax records, his bank accounts. brown says it was a vendetta because murdoch didn't like his politics. >> i'm shocked. i'm genuinely shocked to find this happened. because of the links with criminals, known criminals, who are undertaking this activity. >> reporter: even the royals were targeted. there are damning allegations that murdoch management knew years ago "news of the world" had breached state security but didn't tell police. it's alleged the paper's royal reporter asked the editor for $1,600 so he could buy a top-secret directory called the green book which contains all the confidential phon